I joined about 50 other members of AHDI and MTIA in Washington, D.C. this week for an Advocacy Summit.  I met with 6 legislative offices along with three team members.  Altogether, participants visited representatives of 30 states to explain the important role of the narrative note as healthcare pushes forward with EMR implementations.  The messages were very well received overall, and we hope to have influenced many of the lawmakers to correspond with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to include references to the transcription and editing process (of dictated narrative notes) in the definition of meaningful use.  We explained how the Health Story Project (CDA4CDT) helps bridge the gap between free narrative and the structured data required by EMRs.